1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light emitting diode (LED) package structure, and more particularly, to an LED package structure with a fuse.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Since an LED possesses advantages of long lifetime, small size, shock-proof property, low heat emission and low electric power consumption, the LED has been widely used as an indicative lamp or a light source for various household appliances and instruments, and even in various types of mobile electronic products or large-sized array-type LED products such as car electronic products, wireless communication products, traffic signal system and outdoor bulletin boards.
LED chips are current-driven, and thus a stable current flow should be supplied to the LED chips as a power source, such that the LED chips can emit stable illumination lights. In the past, most of the LED chips are low power LED chips, which require low driving current to provide light. Nevertheless, the high illumination and high power applications of LED have gradually become trendy. In addition, most circuit system now requires and drives a plurality of LED chips electrically connected in series or in parallel, instead of a single LED chip. In view of this, the circuit system has to supply higher current to drive the LED chips than before. It should be noted that when the driving current increases, the short-circuit probability increases as well. Particularly, as the power source is normally a voltage source and as the impedance of each of the LEDs is substantially different, the current may become instable. For this reason, when the current inside the system becomes extremely high, the LED chip may be damaged or burned down. Therefore, to prevent the damage of LED chip due to increase of input current and to enhance the circuit protection ability of LED package structure is a critical issue.